Understanding the concept of brand identity
Apple Inc. coherently cracks surveys of the most beloved and effective brands as it has efficiently created the impression that its products are innovative, sleek, premium status symbols, and yet extremely useful at the same time. This shows that Apple has created a great brand identity.
Brand identity is the visible factors of a brand, like the colour, logo, and design that distinguishes and identifies the brand in the customers’ minds. brand identity is different from the brand image. Brand identity complies with the intent behind the branding. The way a business does the following to create a certain image in the customers’ mind:
- Picking its name
- Choosing its logo
- The use of shapes, colours, and other visual elements
- Training its employee to interact with customers
With the help of brand identity, corporate organizations distinguish themselves from their competitors in the mind of consumers and help in brand management. Often brand identity is mistaken with Brand Image, Branding, and Brand Equity.
Brand identity consists of:
- Logo
- Typography
- Style Guide
- Key brand Colours
- Colour Palette
- Tone of voice
- Textures
In short, brand identity is how an organization wants its customers and prospective customers to perceive their products and services.
Importance of brand identity
Building a strong brand identity is one of the necessities every organization should look upon. Brand identity is the most essential core element strategy of marketing and promotion. Brand identity is a reflection of:
- Organization Personality: A brand identity is the visual display of the values and personality of your brand. This basically tones your brand, and it can be used to awaken specific feelings in your customers. Configure your brand identity to promote your business goals.
- Consistency: Developing a brand identity creates a consistent message across all marketing platforms. Each material should have the basic design element and style, creating a consistent branding package.
- Awareness: Creating a brand identity package guarantees that your brand is at the fore of all your marketing platforms. This ensures to increase brand awareness. The more your brand is featured, the more memorable it will be.
- Loyalty: An efficient brand identity can help you gain customer loyalty and trust. This allows your customers to make a connection between a product and the business.
Brand identity is a visual representation of an organizational personality. You must ensure to design the brand identity in a way that reflects the overall communication message between the brand and its prospective consumers through promotion. An effective brand identity helps to build loyalty and trust for a brand. If the brand identity is consistent with the objectives of their products and services, it enhances the possibilities of creating more awareness that helps to hammer old customers and featuring contact with new customers.
A classic example of brand identity is Lenovo; to re-energize its brand importance, Lenovo came up with new interfaces and customizable templates, including graphics, colour palette, coloured backdrops, and photos.
BEFORE AFTER
Lenovo developed its new identity with an intention to make people see what it actually stands for and to reach out to them with the message that Lenovo never stands still. The bold colour backdrops and infinite designing of the Lenovo box made the brand look more youthful. Lenovo hit the market with the new design and motto, ensuring their audiences will see the Logo as a window of the outer world filled with ranging colours and designs.
Tips for Creating a Strong brand identity
Building a strong and definitive brand identity depends on various factors and parameters. To make it more understandable, this content will sufficiently guide you with the best strategy tips to enhance your brand identity in this fast pacing global market
1. Understanding your Target Audience
Target audiences are the sole entity and reason for whom you are encouraging your products and services. Every product or service that is introduced needs a proper target group, and the company needs to focus on an appropriate target audience for developing brand identity.
For example, e-cosmetic brand NYX is targeted for professionals and customers with a unique lifestyle such as celebrities, whereas Maybelline is a target for young ladies aged 16-25. It is impeccable to understand the size of the TA you will be catering for, their demographics, trends that they are associated with, and characteristics. You need to be clear about the TA that you want to attract via brand identity, and the most challenging part is to perceive new customers.
If you have a flourishing brand identity in Mexico, you may not have it in Thailand, and to uplift the brand identity notion, you need to research the preferences of the locals and make strategic plans that will fit in the market. Segregating your TA is a primary stroke that needs to be addressed.
2. Researching your Competition
Entering into a new market is quite challenging, where you have fierce competition. One of the fundamental values of brand identity is distinguishing itself from others and making itself prominent. For this, you need to case study every competitor around the market.
For example, if you are entering into the online web hosting service, then you need to study your competitors and know what they are doing right to succeed. Knowing your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses will only help you grow further and reach on the top. You need to dig deeper and monitor their day to day activities. Conducting a research survey will help you chalk out the strong and lose hold of your competitors, which will help you to make a promising blueprint for your brand identity.
3. Determining Brand name and Tagline
Ford, an American Vehicle Company that is successfully working across the globe with a Slogan “Go Further” that has pinpointed with its product personality, whereas, Philips- “Innovation and You” are some of the notable patterns of good brand recall that have become successful because of catchy tagline or slogan. While determining your brand identity, you must create an engaging brand name and tagline that will connect with the TA instinctively and will also promote your mission and vision.
4. Establishing a Unique Value Proposition and Brand Voice
Unique Value Proposition (UVP) and Brand Voice are correlated with each other. UVP is an on-point statement that defines and differentiates your brand from the competition. It will briefly explain to your audience what you can offer them and why they should choose you. If you fail to create a unique brand voice, you might forever be lost in the sea of your competitors. Although identifying and creating UVP might sound easy, it is not so much. If done correctly, it can make the business more successful and sustainable.
5. Developing Creative Elements
Brand identity is an amalgamation of brand name, shape, logo, graphics, theme, colour, and sound. Nike is one of the best examples of brand identity in terms of its development in creative elements.
The patent ‘Swoosh’ is irrevocable and acts as an identification mark for its TA. While you are reframing your brand identity, you must keep the core creative elements in mind because these are the drivers that enhance brand engagement among purchasers.
6. Using social media for branding
Building a brand doesn’t happen overnight; it takes a lot of time and strategies. It sometimes takes more than a decade to establish a brand. Social media has found to be the most effective platform to build a brand. Social media platforms for promoting your brand identity is a wise pick; you not only promote your brand values and propositions but also engage your TA with follow up conversations.
Using social media, your brand reach automatically gets carried forward in terms of repost, shares, and likes. The following are some of the essential strategies to keep in mind for making the most of social media.
- Be consistent across social media platforms
- Use your logo and use brand colours that make a statement
- Post relevant content and post it as frequently as possible
- Engage and converse with the audience
7. Maintaining consistency
Exploring a new marketing strategy is essential to keep a consistent pace among your TA. It is vital to maintain the texture of strategies that you are implementing for enhancing the brand identity; otherwise, if you break the uniformity, your TA will have less impact on the brand and will tend to shift their preferences.
Brand identity is comprehensively an essential key for creating a successful brand image that will have effective brand recognition, value, recall, and equity. Flourishing brands like Coca Cola, McDonald’s have, from time to time, redefined their brand identity and stated strong examples for others as well.
Conclusion
A brand identity is more than just logos and designs of the product; It is a way to engage with your audience, stand out from the crowd and create an experience that makes people choose your brand over the others. It is important to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and think from their perspective whilst working on the brand identity for making it successful. This article provides you with 7 simple yet powerful tips that can catapult your brand to get the success it deserves.
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